Editing Isis (section)

===Name and origins===
Whereas some [[ancient Egyptian deities|Egyptian deities]] appeared in the late [[Predynastic Egypt|Predynastic Period]] (before {{Circa|3100 BCE}}), neither Isis nor her husband [[Osiris]] were mentioned by name before the [[Fifth Dynasty of Egypt|Fifth Dynasty]] ({{Circa|2494–2345 BCE}}).{{sfn|Wilkinson|2003|pp=12–14, 146}}{{sfn|Griffiths|1980|p=41}} An inscription that may refer to Isis dates to the reign of [[Nyuserre Ini]] during that period,{{sfn|Münster|1968|p=159}} and she appears prominently in the [[Pyramid Texts]], which began to be written down at the end of the dynasty and whose content may have developed much earlier.{{sfn|Pinch|2002|pp=9–11}} Several passages in the Pyramid Texts link Isis with the region of the [[Nile Delta]] near [[Behbeit el-Hagar]] and [[Sebennytos]], and her [[cult (religious practice)|cult]] may have originated there.{{sfn|Münster|1968|p=158}}{{refn|group="Note"|The worship of a particular god, such as Isis, within ancient Egyptian religion is termed a "[[cult (religious practice)|cult]]".{{sfn|Teeter|2001|p=340}} The same is often true for the worship of individual gods within Greek or Roman religion. Classicists sometimes refer to the veneration of Isis, or of certain other deities who were introduced to the Greco-Roman world, as "religions" because they were more distinct from the culture around them than the cults of Greek or Roman gods.{{sfn|Alvar|2008|pp=2–4}} However, these cults did not form the kind of independent, self-contained communities with distinct worldviews that [[Judaism|Jewish]] and [[Christianity|Christian]] groups in the Roman Empire did.{{sfn|Burkert|1987|pp=51–53}} [[Françoise Dunand]] and [[Jaime Alvar]] have both argued that the worship of Isis should be called a "cult", because it formed a part of the wider systems of Greek and Roman religion, rather than an independent, all-encompassing system of beliefs like Judaism or Christianity.{{sfn|Alvar|2008|pp=2–4}}{{sfn|Dunand|2010|pp=40–41, 50–51}} }}

Many scholars have focused on Isis's name in trying to determine her origins. Her [[Egyptian language|Egyptian]] name was written as {{lang|egy|{{script|Egyp|{{huge|'''𓊨𓏏𓆇𓁐'''}}}}}} ({{Transliteration|egy|ꜣst}}), the pronunciation of which changed over time: ''Rūsat'' > ''Rūsaʾ'' > ''ʾŪsaʾ'' > ''ʾĒsə'',{{sfn|Quack|2018|page=108}} which became {{lang|cop|ⲎⲤⲈ}} ({{Transliteration|cop|Ēse}}) in the [[Coptic language|Coptic form of Egyptian]], {{Transliteration|xmr|Wusa}} in the [[Meroitic language]] of Nubia, and {{lang|grc|Ἶσις}}, on which her modern name is based, in [[Ancient Greek language|Greek]].{{sfn|Quack|2018|pp=108–109}}{{refn|group="Note"|Originally the first consonant in the name, ''ꜣ'', was pronounced as ''r'' or ''l''. By the time of the [[New Kingdom of Egypt|New Kingdom]] it had weakened to a [[glottal stop]] sound, and the ''t'' at the end of words had disappeared from speech, so in the New Kingdom the pronunciation of Isis's name was similar to ''Usa''. Forms of her name in other languages all descend from this pronunciation.{{sfn|Quack|2018|pp=108–109}} The Meroitic forms of her name, {{Script|Mero|𐦥𐦣𐦯}} ''Wos[a]'' or {{Script|Mero|𐦠𐦯}} ''As[a]'', indicate the pronunciation /uːɕa/.{{sfn|Rilly|de Vogt|2012|p=37}} }} The [[Egyptian hieroglyphs|hieroglyphic]] writing of her name incorporates the sign for a throne, which Isis also wears on her head as a sign of her identity. The symbol serves as a [[phonogram (linguistics)|phonogram]], spelling the ''st'' sounds in her name, but it may have also represented a link with actual thrones. The Egyptian term for a throne was also ''st'' and may have shared a common [[etymology]] with Isis's name. Therefore, the Egyptologist [[Kurt Sethe]] suggested she was originally a personification of thrones.{{sfn|Griffiths|1980|pp=91, 95–97}} [[Henri Frankfort]] agreed, believing that the throne was considered the king's mother, and thus a goddess, because of its power to make a man into a king.{{sfn|Frankfort|1978|pp=43–44, 108}} Other scholars, such as Jürgen Osing and Klaus P. Kuhlmann, have disputed this interpretation, because of dissimilarities between Isis's name and the word for a throne{{sfn|Griffiths|1980|pp=91, 95–97}} or a lack of evidence that the throne was ever deified.{{sfn|Kuhlmann|2011|p=2}}